Legal Notes: Absurdly Stupid, Absurdly Sinister, Hauntingly Eloquent
Legal Notes: Absurdly Stupid, Absurdly Sinister, Hauntingly Eloquent
February 28, 2013
Two legal stories caught my eye today. In the first, drinkers are suing Anheuser-Busch for watering down its beers, such as Budweiser and Michelob. While I could sympathise with someone suing the company for calling their products 'beer,' I find this suit very odd. It is surely akin to suing a water company for watering down its water, the Pope for being Catholic, and bears for relieving themselves in the woods.
In the second suit, the parents of a transgender first grader (that is a five or six year old, to the British readers) are suing over which bathroom the child can be allowed to use at school.
I do not think any commentary is really necessary on the latter. But I wonder if civic life can continue in any coherent form if the combination of the cretinous anti-essentialism and plasticity of the politics of postmodern sexuality, the abolition of childhood (or perhaps adulthood), and the aggressive absurdities of a trivialised legal system continue pressing forward heel-for-heel and toe-for-toe to greater and greater heights of asinine individualism and assorted victimhoods? Is this really what we have come to? Law courts adjudicating bathroom use for five year old transgender people? What will the future look like? Grim, very grim.
In the second suit, the parents of a transgender first grader (that is a five or six year old, to the British readers) are suing over which bathroom the child can be allowed to use at school.
I do not think any commentary is really necessary on the latter. But I wonder if civic life can continue in any coherent form if the combination of the cretinous anti-essentialism and plasticity of the politics of postmodern sexuality, the abolition of childhood (or perhaps adulthood), and the aggressive absurdities of a trivialised legal system continue pressing forward heel-for-heel and toe-for-toe to greater and greater heights of asinine individualism and assorted victimhoods? Is this really what we have come to? Law courts adjudicating bathroom use for five year old transgender people? What will the future look like? Grim, very grim.